Josh
Companion short story to
Wizard of Time
Book One: Chasing
History Series
Sue Owen
©Copyright 2011 Sue Owen
Licensing of this presentation is for your personal enjoyment
only. This presentation may not be
re-sold or given away to other people without the express permission of the
author. If you would like to share this presentation
with another person, please purchase an additional copy. If you are reading this presentation and did
not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please contact the
Publisher for approved purchase outlets.
Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Published
by Pink Phoenix Publishing
JOSH
One
“Ding,
Ding” The bell rang as Josh hit it with the palm of his hand. “Order up!” he shouted out the kitchen
window. “Freaking dumb waitress,” he
continued, mumbling under his breath.
“She takes her own sweet time getting the damn orders out to the suckers
and then I get blamed when the freaking food is freaking cold. Damn I hate this job.”
“Josh. Get your ass in here!” Stan bellows from the
back room.
“Freaking
Stan’s gunna bitch me out again for something stupid, I’ll bet,” he mumbled again
as he wiped his hands on his filthy apron and headed toward the back
office. “Yeah, Boss?” He tried to be respectful but usually came
out pretty sarcastic; just like now.
“Josh, I
told you over and over to make sure the stove is clean when you get done with
shift. Artie told me it was dirty again
this morning under the burners. You have
to take them off completely not just lift the top and wipe. Do I have to give you another lesson? If it happens again
I’m gunna dock your pay for an hour’s work.
Get it? Now get your butt back
out there.
“Customers
have been complaining again the food’s cold when it gets to them. Hustle!”
Stan turned back to his desk as the phone rang. “And close the damn door!” to Josh as Stan
answered the phone “Thank you for calling Stanley’s Road House. This is Stan, may I help you?”
“Jerk.” Josh said quietly as he closed the door. “Clean the freaking grill yourself. Get your fat ass up outta that cushy chair
and do some work around here for a change.
Damn I hate this job.” Josh
continued to mumble as he pulled the next order off the wheel.
After
cleaning the grill and closing up, he saw it was past midnight as he clocked
out. Josh walked out to the bus stop to
wait for the last bus into town. One
more month, he thinks tonight as he does every night. Just one more month working here and I’ll
have enough saved for my car. Then I can
blow this dump and head down to California.
I hate this town, this job and my life.
When the
bus came, Josh sat in the back. He hated
the smell of beer and whisky that came in waves off the old drunk that always
sat up front and the smell of the old woman with her too heavy perfume sitting
in the forth seat behind the driver.
Just like always. Nothing
changes, he thinks to himself.
When he
gets off he doesn’t even bother to wave to the driver. Loser, Josh thinks as he steps onto the
pavement. Josh has been riding this bus
at least four days a week for over a year and he doesn’t even know the driver’s
name. He just doesn’t care, which pretty
much summarizes Josh’s whole life. He
just doesn’t care. At 17 he's too young
for just about everything he wants to do according to his mom. Thinking about his mom makes Josh angry all
over again.
If it
wasn’t for her, he’d been gone long ago.
She worked at the local Food Mart and didn’t earn enough to pay all the
bills. So when Josh was old enough, she
made him go to work and start paying rent.
She was a
good enough mom, he supposed but he deeply resented having to give up the life
he wanted to support her and her numerous ‘friends.’ He hated it when she brought someone home and
he had to pretend he was the good son.
“It’s all
crap,” he said as he opened the back door to their mobile home.
All was
quiet. That was a relief for Josh. That meant no new guy yet and that was okay
with him. Mom was pretty easy to live
with when there wasn’t some loser lying around making her act stupid with
trying to impress him. Josh got a beer
from the fridge. He didn’t care if she
liked it or not. So what. He liked beer and he wanted one now.
He flopped
on the couch, which was his bed, and flipped on the computer. His world consisted of a Mage named Daid and
the latest raid. Connection sucked and
was really laggy but he didn’t care as he settled into another night of kicking
Alliance bootty. After a bit he turned
the computer off, that not even able to hold his attention tonight. He settled down to sleep. Another day gone.
Two
The next
morning, Josh woke up to his mom yelling at him to get up and take out the
trash. Nothing changes. He grumbled something meaningless to her as
he squeezed past her heading to the bathroom.
He took a pee and a shower, putting on the same clothes he had worn the
day before.
They didn’t smell too bad
not that he had much of a choice. His
mom hadn’t gone to the laundry mat yet this week and he didn’t have anything
cleaner. He took out the garbage because
he knew if he didn’t he’d never hear the end of it when he finally got
home. Then he headed to the local
hangout.
Today was
his day off. He’d been asked by Izzie to
join her and her friends shooting a few games of pool that afternoon at Icabods
downtown. He liked Izzie and decided he
could put up with her townie friends, even though he hadn’t met them yet. Townies were all the same. Boring and too full of themselves.
He started
his day at the local AM/PM chugging cola with the same guys he knew from high
school. No good friends, just guys he
knew.
When it was
time to meet Izzie, he left the hangout, saying goodbye to his friends among
many jeers, and headed to the bus stop.
His friends just loved to tease him when he had a new girl. They were just jealous, Josh thought, smiling
broadly.
He picked
Izzie up at the corner of Lombard and the highway and they walked the few
blocks to Icabods.
He'd met
Izzie a couple weeks ago at a friend’s house in Portland. She was from Beaverton, same as him. Sort of.
He was from the poorer side of town, she from the richer, but he didn’t
tell her that. They had talked for a
couple hours at the party and she’d gave him her phone number when he
asked. He never called her though,
because his mom wouldn’t get a phone put in.
He’d
managed to see her a couple times earlier this week. Once he was waiting for her outside her
school and once ran into her (on purpose) as she was getting off work. Izzie had dinner at the road house where Josh
worked earlier that week with her family and extended the pool invite when she
saw him there.
They
chatted happily the few blocks it took to get to Icabods. Josh wasn’t brave enough yet to hold her
hand, he didn’t want to scare her off, so he kept his hands in the pockets of
his jeans. Josh was just a little taller
than Izzie and her 5’7” fit just perfect under his chin when he’d casually
hugged her goodbye after the party. She
was perfectly built, in Josh’s opinion with curly brown hair that bounced when
she walked. And she smelled like wild
flowers. Very nice.
Josh ran
his hand through his longish black hair trying to tame it down a bit. It was straight but tended to stick up
because it was so thick. Girls loved to
run their fingers through it. Josh hated
it. He was tempted once again to get it
cut off completely but knew he’d never hear the end of it from his
friends. Long hair was definitely
in.
Josh was
handsome by anyone’s standards. He had
the natural chiseled good looks like a movie star and with deep green eyes that
picked up the lights around him and seemed to dance.
Unfortunately,
he knew the effect he had on girls and took full advantage of it. Since 5th grade, he’d taken
advantage of it. He couldn’t remember a
time since then that he didn’t have some girl either with him or one he was
thinking about dating. He didn’t,
however, ever cheat. That was just not
right. He liked his girls to be his
alone. He was kind of possessive that
way and would devote himself just to that one girl. Playing the field was just too much work.
The pool
hall was crowded already but it was a Saturday after all. Josh and Izzie found a table in the middle
and put their bid down on one of the pool tables then sat back to wait. After about half an hour, the table they
wanted cleared and they began their game.
After a
couple shots each, a short, pudgy kid came in and grabbing Izzie planting a
big, juicy kiss right on her lips. Izzie
laughed and playfully pushed him away.
“Knock it
off Eddie!” she exclaimed giving Josh a sideways look to make sure he was
paying attention. He was.
“Eddie,
Matt, Tom … this is Josh. Remember I
told you about him? I met him at Sandy’s
party the other night.” Josh tried for a
smile but it really came out as a smirk as he hit fists with the boys as they
were introduced.
“Josh works
out at the road house. We just started a
game. You guys wanna join?” She looked at Josh to make sure he was cool
with that. He was.
“Sure,”
says Matt. “Always glad to take someone
else’s money!”
Josh just
smiled. “Good luck, man.” The other three just grinned at each other.
“Rack ‘em
up again, why don’t cha, Joshey old boy.
Let’s see whatcha got,” from Tom in a smooth, southern drawl. Matt had gone to get drinks for them from the
bar. He came back just as Josh was
resetting the table.
“You can go
first, Tommy old son,” says Josh, imitating Tom’s drawl a bit. They all laughed.
When the
game was done, Josh was up by four quarters and Matt was looking a little taken
aback. “You’ve played a bit before,
haven’t you Josh?”
Josh just
laughed. “A bit, yeah.” What Josh didn’t say and would never say is
that he’d been playing pool at the Boy’s Club around the corner from the
trailer park since he was four and got told to “go play outside while Mommie
visits with Uncle Whatever-the-Current-Boyfriend-Was.” He’d been all-city champion for five years in
a row when he’d quit playing to take the job at Stanley’s last spring.
The boys
seemed to be okay with their loss since it was pretty resounding and they were
happy to play a few more games with Josh and get some pointers. Izzie joined right in which Josh liked about
her…she didn’t have to be the center of attention. After the games, Josh asked Izzie if she
wanted to go grab a burger at the local burger joint. She said yes and they said “later” to the
boys and headed out.
The Burger
Palace was about a mile from Icabods and they decided to walk. It was warmish for early spring and felt good
to both of them to just walk and talk.
They were enjoying each other’s company and being alone for a bit. Josh ordered burgers, fries and shakes for
them at the Palace and they took a booth towards the back. They talked some more.
Izzie had
to work the next morning for a few hours.
She worked part time at the local Blockbuster Video Store and Josh
walked her home and lightly kissed her on the cheek after giving her a hug and
telling her he’d see her the next day.
They’d made arrangements to go see a movie the next afternoon before he
had to be at work.
Three
Josh walked
to the bus stop, thinking about Izzie and the car he would soon have. He caught the cross town bus and headed into
Portland to visit his friend Charlie.
Charlie was two years older than Josh and lived in an apartment on the
East side. It was a dump and the
neighborhood was rough but it was Charlie so he didn’t really care. Charlie was a 6’3” full back, black as sin
and twice as mean. Josh worshiped
him. Charlie taught him how to play
football, how to skip rocks and how to roll a joint. Charlie was everything Josh wanted to be.
Josh got to
Charlie’s just as the sun was setting.
He’d planned to spend the night so it really didn’t matter if he got
there after dark or not. He’d told his
mom as he left that he wouldn’t be home that night and she just shrugged and
told him to “stay out of jail. I can’t
afford to bail you out again.”
Charlie
never cared if Josh was there or not or when he came. It was all cool with him.
When Josh
walked in there were five or six people there, pretty typical at
Charlie’s. There were always a lot of
people hanging around. Charlie didn’t
have much furniture so after Josh grabbed a beer off the counter he sat down
next to a guy strumming a guitar on a sleeping bag in the corner.
“Whatsup,”
they said to each other. That was pretty
much how it went for the rest of the night.
The guitar guy ended up being a wanna-be writer and showed off some of
his songs which got better as Josh got drunker.
People came in and people left.
Josh got to
talk to Charlie a little bit but just about how the game at the ‘Y’ went the
night before … Charlie’s team won again.
Of course. Josh finally ended up
crashing about three in the morning on the sleeping bag he started out on.
Josh woke
up when someone banged on Charlie’s door at 11:00 a.m. Checking his watch Josh remembered he was
going to the movies with Izzie at noon and he still had to shower. He always had a few clothes at Charlie’s,
luckily, so he was able to change into a Blazer’s t-shirt and a cleaner pair of
jeans. Charlie washed Josh’s stuff, and
anyone else’s that was left there, when he washed his own clothes.
Guess he
hadn’t washed clothes for a while, thought Josh as he sniffed the pants before
putting them on. Still better than what
he wore here, though, so he went with it.
By this
time, it was pretty close to noon. He
was going to be late. He asked when he came
in the front room if anyone could give him a lift to Beaverton. Luckily, the guitar guy was heading that way
and was ready to go so Josh hooked a ride with him. The guy dropped him at the mall which was a mile
from Izzie’s. Josh jogged most of the
way so was only half an hour late.
Izzie was
waiting for him. He explained he got
stuck in Portland and they started to walk back to the mall where the movie
theatre was located. Luckily they still
had plenty of time. They were about two
blocks from Izzie’s house when her phone rang.
She gave Josh an apologetic look and answered it. She only talked for a second then hung
up. As she was hanging up, a guy that
had been watching them as he was walking towards them stopped just short of
passing them.
He said, “Aren’t you Andrew and Sophia’s son?” addressing Josh.
“No, I’m not, sorry, bro.” The guy apologized, gave them a little smile
and moved on. Josh glanced back at him
as they continued on and saw him stopped a few paces past where they had talked
and was looking at them intensely.
“That was
weird,” said Izzie. “Did you know that
guy?”
“Naw,” said
Josh. “He’s just some weird guy hoping
he’ll get lucky with names and then hit me up for money, happens all the
time.” It didn’t though and Josh was a
little freaked out by the whole thing.
Strangers just didn’t talk to him.
Josh looked around again and saw the guy was gone.
Izzie asked
if they could stop at the local Albertson’s to get some snacks for the
movie. Since snacks in the movie were
always so expensive, Josh figured that was a great idea. They were paying for their purchases and the
guy behind the counter asked Josh how his parents were.
“My
parents?” he asked, confused.
The guy
said. “Yeah, I see your mom and dad come
in here all the time. Your mom showed me
your picture a couple of times. Andrew
has a tough time picking out videos and Sophia isn’t much help,” he said as he
waved his arm towards the video selection at the back of the store.
“They
always ask my opinion.” He grinned as he
put their snacks in a bag. “I’m always
happy to give it,” he chuckled.
Josh just
mumbled, “they’re fine,” grabbed Izzie’s arm and drug her out of the
store.
“What’s up
with that guy? Josh, are you okay,”
Izzie changed her tone when she looked over at Josh and saw how pale he
was.
“I’m
fine. That just freaked me out a bit,”
he said as he started to pass her the snacks from the sack to put in her
purse.
“You don’t
look very okay. You look like you’ve
seen a ghost or something. You want to
sit down?” Izzie said as she put the
rest of the snacks into her purse.
“Naw. Naw.
I’m cool,” Josh remarked as he tossed the sack into the garbage, led her
off the steps and started towards the movie theater again. Moving closer to Josh she took his arm. They continued onto the movie theatre without
anything further happening but Josh kept looking back at the store and around
him, wondering.
The movie
wasn’t that good and Josh was glad to get out of it. Izzie didn’t think it was that great either. Since Josh had to work in a few hours, they
just grabbed ice cream cones from the mall as he walked her home, licking the
cones and talking about the really bad parts in the movie. Laughing seemed to help brighten the day and
helped Josh forget the weird events that happened earlier.
Four
Josh didn’t
know who his dad was. He figured his mom
probably didn’t either. But his mom’s
name was Jennifer, not Sophia and she’d never be caught on this side of
Beaverton. Ever. He finally decided in the middle of that
really bad movie that it was a case of him looking like someone from around
here. Yeah, that’s it. I just look like someone, he thought. Nevertheless, he hurried past the Albertson’s
and was very relieved to drop Izzie and catch the bus heading back to the other
side of Beaverton.
When he got
home, his mom was out. He knew she
didn’t work on Sunday’s so figured she was staying at a ‘friend’s’ house
again. He felt another boyfriend wasn’t
too far off. Great. Just great, he thought to himself. Good news was that mom had done laundry so
Josh had some clean clothes finally. He
didn’t need to change as he could wear whatever he wanted at work because he
had the apron on anyway, but it was nice to know he’d have clean clothes
tomorrow.
Just as he
was thinking it was time to leave for work, he heard a pounding on the
door. It was the park manager asking for
his mom.
“She’s not
here,” Josh said rather disdainfully.
The guy was a maggot.
“Tell her she better pay the two month’s park
rent she owes by end of the week or I’m getting this pile of shit towed out of
here,” he said disdainfully and handed Josh a piece of paper with “EVICTION”
written across the top. “Make sure she
gets that, punk.”
“Yea. I’ll do that, jerk,” Josh shot back as he
slammed the door in the guy’s face.
“Moron,” Josh said to the closed door.
He tossed the paper on the little table, grabbed his jacket and headed
out the back. He didn’t want to run into
that jack ass again.
As Josh was
waiting for the bus, he happened to look across the street to the little
bakery. There were always good smells
coming out of there. Josh renewed his
vow to stop there someday and get a cinnamon roll. Damn, they smelled so good.
The shop
had a few little tables out on the side for customers to sit on with red
checked tablecloths. There was a couple
at one of the tables, leaning towards each other holding hands. Ah, isn’t that just so sweet, Josh thought
sarcastically. His eye was caught by the
other person outside the shop.
He wasn’t
sitting at the other table, just kind of standing by the door, looking Josh’s
direction. He was short, Josh could tell
because his head barely came up to the door handle. He was wearing a black robe with a black hood
that completely covered him. The robe
was way too big for him. Josh kind of
snickered to himself, at least my clothes fit.
Loser, just as the bus pulled up.
Josh walked
into work, saying hi to Artie the day cook.
He’s leaving a little early, thought Josh.
Normally Artie didn’t leave until Josh was
there. He walked back to where the
aprons were kept, punched his time card, put on his apron, tying it as he
headed back to the kitchen. Artie always
left the kitchen nice and clean so Josh just grabbed the first order off the
spiral and started to prepare it.
“Order’s up,” was about all he had to say for a while as he kept busy
during the dinner rush hour.
Stanley’s
featured mostly cold sandwiches, hamburgers, fries and milkshakes at night with
a full breakfast menu in the mornings.
Josh was responsible for the cooked food, including the sandwiches that
occasionally were ordered. The salads,
milkshakes and other cold items were prepared out front by the waitresses.
There was
seating for about 40 people with 4 booths against the windows and 5 tables
between the bar and the booths and 5 seats against the bar. Normally, the place was about ¾ full. Tonight was no exception. Josh worked in the back, behind the bar and
the walkway the two waitresses used to prepare the cold parts of the orders and
serve the bar customers.
They also
had a guy that did the bussing, cleaning off tables and putting dishes in the
dishwasher. They had a kid that came in
during the rush hour to pick up the slack with the dishwasher and he usually
put dishes away and shagged stuff from the cooler to the waitresses.
Josh could
see into the main dining area and all but two of the tables through the take
out window where he put the completed orders for the waitresses. He spent a lot of time heads down working but
liked to watch people as they ate to make sure he wasn’t going to get in
trouble for cold food and to keep an eye on the waitresses to make sure they
weren’t messing with stuff that he might be blamed for later.
Tonight, he
happened to be looking towards the door when a really nice looking girl came in
with some dude in a penguin suit. She
had on a prom-type dress, slit up the side and low cut. Josh smiled to himself. He liked low cut. It was some kind of shimmery cloth because it
clung to her body when she moved so he was able to see she didn’t have anything
on under it.
Very nice,
he thought to himself, smiling wider.
Just then, she looked up and looked directly into his eyes. She stopped and turned slightly towards him
like she was going to say something. She
changed her mind evidently because she turned back and continued after the
waitress. Josh barely glanced at the
guy, all his attention on the lady.
During the
next half an hour or so, Josh was able to glance up at her a few times. She sat facing him. She was watching him every time he looked up. She never turned away when he caught her
eye. Josh could tell she said little or
nothing to her companion because her lips never moved; at least not the times
he glanced at her. She just ate her
salad and drank her tea. But she barely
took her eyes off him. He got busy as
she was just finishing up her salad and the next time he was able to look up,
she was gone.
Weird. But very sexy, he thought to himself. Wouldn’t mind seeing way more of her. Josh finished up his shift, cleaned the
grill, locked up and headed towards the bus stop.
Five
One more
month minus one day, he thought. The bus
came and he headed toward the back as usual.
Past the booze guy, past the lady.
As he got to his normal seat and began to swing into it, he saw it was
occupied. By the little man he had seen
at the bakery earlier. Josh caught
himself and sat in the seat just before it.
Wow, that’s really weird. Talk
about coincidence, Josh thought wearily.
Josh was
very uncomfortable during the whole bus ride, feeling the little guy behind him
and just knew he was watching him intently.
Josh could feel holes forming in the back of his head. He was really glad when his stop came and he
could stand up. He headed as fast as he
could without running to the front of the bus.
He glanced to the back as he was stepping off but he couldn’t see the
man.
He’s
probably just so short I can’t see him above the seat. There’s no way he could be gone … he would
have had to walk right by me and I know I didn’t see him leave. Josh continued off the bus and started
walking towards home.
He rounded
the last corner to his house and stopped short.
There, right in front of him completely across the sidewalk was a big,
shimmering ring. Josh could see the cars
and sidewalk through it but it looked almost like a film had been placed
between the cars and sidewalk on this side and the other.
“Wow. That’s way cool,” Josh exclaimed out
loud.
“Thank
you. I kind of like it,” said a tiny
voice beside Josh.
It was the
little man. Josh said, “you!”
“Yes, it’s
me. It has always been me, as a matter
of fact. I don’t believe I have ever
been anyone else. Would you mind
stepping through the portal, please?
Now, please. You are needed on
the other side, immediately.”
“I don’t think so, bro,” Josh said and took a
step back.
The little
man sighed. “I was afraid you would say
that.” The little guy waved his arms in
kind of a circle and Josh felt his feet leave the ground and felt himself
moving towards the ring.
“Hey, what the heck are you doing to me! Put
me down NOW!!” Josh screamed.
“I’m sorry,
young master. But you really have to go
through the portal,” Josh heard as he passed out of his reality and through the
portal.
**********
To Learn
more about Josh and his adventures, read the Chasing History series: Wizard of Time, Defender of Time and Controller of Time available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Smashwords. Also available in
Paperback at The Book Patch.
Bonus
feature: Following is the first four
pages of Wizard of Time.
Wizard of Time
Book
One, Chasing History series
Josh blinked,
trying to clear his eyesight. Where the
heck was he? He registered that the room
was dark with a musty smell, like old socks.
He could barely make out shapes but saw what could have been a desk with
a big, stuffed chair behind it. It
appeared that books covered all the walls.
The room was large and Josh was at one end of it. There was a table with chairs in the middle
of the room, with the desk at the far end.
He rubbed his hands over his face again, trying to clear his eyesight.
“It doesn’t really
help. That blurriness will go away in a
little bit. Just don’t make any sudden
movements and you won’t feel your head.”
Josh spun around and looked to his right where the voice was coming
from. So much for not making sudden
movements. As he turned, his head
exploded with pain and he staggered against the wall and promptly sat on the
floor. He moaned.
“I told you not to
make any sudden movements,” came the voice again in a softer tone. Josh could tell it was a girl but couldn’t
really make out her features.
He held his head in
his hands. “Are you sure my head won’t
explode?”
“Yes, I’m
sure. Here.” She handed him a cool, wet cloth. “It will pass in a couple of minutes,” she
assured him.
“Thanks,” Josh
said. “Where am I?” he asked between his
fingers, afraid to take his hands down for fear his head would explode despite
her assurance.
“I’m not sure,” she
said cheerily. “I think this is the
Wizard’s house but he’s not been back to tell us.
We’ve had the full run of the house but the
windows and doors won’t open. This is
the library, in case you didn’t see that before you moved. There’s a small kitchen, couple bedrooms and
a bath chamber, but that’s it,” she continued in the same cheerful voice. “There isn’t a food synthesizer but there’s
some kind of metal box next to the sink that has food in it. Kinda gross to see food uncooked, but at
least its eatable. Well some of it is,
anyway.”
Well that’s weird,
Josh thought to himself. How can she not
know what food is? Before he could think
about it anymore, what happened to him came flooding back in one, big, honking
memory.
He had been heading
home from the late shift at the diner where he ran the grill. Burgers, fries, that kind of thing. Nothing fancy. He had rounded a corner after getting off the
bus and a little man completely covered in a long, dark coat told him to “step
through the portal.” Not being one to do
what he’s told, Josh tried to run the other way but the little guy simply
pushed him and he went tumbling into the shimmering ring Josh now took to have
been a portal, whatever that was.
“I’m Meri.” Meri was holding out her hand to Josh
expecting him to shake it, he supposed, still kind of groggy and wondering what
a synthesizer was, he grabbed her hand and pulled himself up, almost knocking
her over. She recovered nicely and
smiled. “The Wizard must be the little
guy in black” he commented, not really needing an answer. “You said ‘we’ earlier,” Josh said. “Who’s ‘we’?”
Meri pointed to a corner.
“He doesn’t say
much. His name’s Digger but that’s about
all I’ve gotten out of him. He’s been
here for a day; I came last night and now you.”
Meri told him. Josh could barely
make out another person in the corner.
He seemed to melt into the heavy curtains that were covering the
window. If it wasn’t for his blonde hair
he probably wouldn’t have been visible at all.
Josh could see he
had some kind of backpack or bag in his hand but couldn’t really make out what
it was. Digger sat the bag on the floor
in the corner and raised his hand slightly in way of a greeting to Josh. Josh did the same and turned back to
Meri.
Meri took the cloth
Josh handed to her and set it on the table.
She picked up a glass that was there and handed it to him. “Water.
Drink.” Josh took a tentative sip
and found it was pretty good so drank it and handed Meri back the empty
glass. His eyesight was beginning to
return to normal like she had said.
“Feeling better?”
she asked after a little bit.
“Yup.” Josh tried a smile. That didn’t hurt too bad. “I’m Josh.
So what’s going on? Do you
know?”
She grinned at
him. “Not really. All I know is that the Wizard will explain
everything when he gets here.”
Since he had to
wait, Josh figured he’d take a look around.
After a bit of exploring he too found doors locked and windows that wouldn’t
open. He even found the kitchen like
Meri said.
Waiting wasn’t
something Josh did well and he was going to have a few words to say to the
Wizard when he returned but for now he figured he was stuck and would take the
time to appraise the situation a bit and see what the others had to say. Maybe there was something they knew that
could get him out of there. He returned
to the study thinking he could talk to the other two to find out what else they
knew. After all, they appeared to be in
the same boat as he was.
Meri was standing
with Digger by the window trying to get a look outside. He headed over to see, too.
From the corner by the door a noise like a
whisper drew their attention. Digger
stepped back into the shadows. “Looks
like the Wizard has arrived,” Josh said as they saw a little man materialize in
the corner.
The Wizard was holding a
long stick with some kind of glowing gem on the end of it. He tapped it sharply on the floor and the
room was flooded with lights. The three
by the window all exclaimed and put their hands over their eyes. The little Wizard saw the gesture and
giggled. “Lights” he said rather
mischievously.
“Yeah, we got
that,” said Josh, not bothering to hide his sarcasm. “What is going on old man? We need some answers. Where are we and why are you keeping us
here?” Josh got out as he was holding
his hand in front of his face, protecting his eyes against the light. “All in good time, all in good time.” The Wizard said almost in a whisper. Josh snorted.
He didn’t like being dismissed out of hand. Before he could start up again, he felt a
hand on his arm. Meri. She whispered, “give it a minute, okay?” Josh subsided reluctantly hoping she knew
what she was doing.
Once Josh’s eyes
adjusted to the light, he peered around the room. The light was coming from eight sconces set
in the wall about three quarters of the way up; four on each side. They flickered like candles. Josh fleetingly wondered how the wizard had
lit them all but was distracted by the wizard himself.
Now that Josh was
seeing the little man again, he remembered that he had seen him several times
in the week before the portal incident.
Once outside his trailer park at the little bakery, once outside his
friend Charlie’s house in southeast Portland and again on the bus last week as
he was heading to work.
The old guy had
apparently been following Josh. He was
clueless as to why. He thought of
himself as an ordinary teenager; almost 6 feet tall with wavy brown hair that
fell over his eyes a bit. Girls
considered him good looking and he didn’t see any reason to doubt them. He wasn’t vain about his looks but made sure
to take care of himself and wore things that were stylish rather than
shabby. However, none of that, in Josh’s
mind would be any reason to single him out for a little jaunt in a portal. And he still didn’t know where he was. As he was opening his mouth to give the
Wizard a piece of his mind and get some questions answered, the Wizard had
other plans.
No comments:
Post a Comment